Thinking about the employee dormitories, Zhang Yunqing suddenly had an idea.
With Zhang Hongwei’s marriage looming ahead, the Zhang household was bound to become increasingly chaotic. And she was someone who hated trouble.
Although staying with the Zhang family meant there would be plenty of drama to watch, it wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining once she herself became entangled in it.
Moving out might actually be a solution.
At the very least, she could first go see what the dormitory conditions were like nowadays.
If they were acceptable, she could try submitting an application to the factory herself.
Since her household registration was local, applying for employee housing would be difficult—but where there’s a will, there’s a way.
With that thought in mind, Zhang Yunqing stepped forward.
“Then let me help you tidy up.”
“No need! That’s not what I meant. I just stopped by to see you on the way.”
Liu Suqin hurriedly refused. She truly hadn’t come looking for Zhang Yunqing just to ask for help.
“I know.” Zhang Yunqing tilted her head and blinked playfully. “I’m the one who wants to see the dormitory. If it’s decent enough, maybe I’ll become your roommate.”
Liu Suqin finally relaxed.
As long as she hadn’t misunderstood her intentions, that was good.
Then she asked curiously, “But your home is nearby, right? Do you really need to apply for a dorm room?”
Zhang Yunqing smiled faintly and had no intention of airing the Zhang family’s messy affairs to outsiders.
In this era, it was enough for her alone to witness her family’s ridiculousness.
Even if she wanted to talk about it, it absolutely couldn’t come from her own mouth.
Otherwise, even if everything she said was true, people would still question her character.
After all, everyone believed family scandals should stay hidden. If someone spread stories about their own family everywhere, people would inevitably think they had a loose tongue.
Her eyes shifted slightly as she quickly found a suitable excuse.
“The plate-making workshop is pretty busy. If I don’t want to go home during lunch break, applying for a dorm room would let me rest longer, which would help with work too.”
Liu Suqin already knew how busy the plate-making workshop was, so she easily accepted the explanation.
“Alright then.”
As she spoke, she looped her arm through Zhang Yunqing’s.
“Then let’s hurry. Once more people return to the dorms later, it’ll be hard to move around.”
Zhang Yunqing rarely got this physically close to others. Her fingers curled awkwardly for a moment, but she didn’t pull her arm away.
Instead, she adjusted slightly to make it more comfortable for Liu Suqin to hold onto her.
The printing factory’s employee dormitory was a five-story corridor-style building.
At either end of every floor were communal kitchen areas and toilets.
The narrow hallway was cluttered with all kinds of miscellaneous belongings. Rooms lined both sides in symmetrical rows.
Because sunlight barely reached the corridor, by dusk it was already difficult to see the ground clearly.
Walking ahead, Liu Suqin kept glancing back worriedly as she led the way.
“There’s a lot of stuff lying around. Be careful not to bump into anything.”
Zhang Yunqing was currently stepping over a rusty coal briquette tong, not even daring to raise her head as she carefully watched her footing.
“You slow down too.”
After passing seven or eight rooms, Liu Suqin finally stopped in front of a door and used the key hanging from her chest to unlock it.
The lock seemed ancient. Turning the key looked difficult.
Zhang Yunqing could faintly hear the harsh grinding creaks, making her teeth ache psychologically just listening to it.
The scene inside the room was actually somewhat better than she had expected.
In a room of roughly twenty-five square meters, eight narrow single beds had been crammed tightly together. Against the wall stood a chipped wooden table with peeling paint.
Under the six already-occupied beds were piles of luggage and washing supplies packed to the brim.
Liu Suqin’s own belongings still hadn’t been unpacked and currently sat on the bed closest to the door.
She pulled a short wooden stool from the corner.
“Yunqing, sit here first. Let me make the bed before you sit down.”
How could Zhang Yunqing possibly sit idle while watching her work? She immediately waved her hands.
“No need. Since I’m here anyway, I’ll help you clean up.”
Before Liu Suqin could refuse, she added firmly:
“If you consider me a friend, then stop saying such distant things. I don’t like hearing them.”
“This…”
Liu Suqin hesitated briefly, but when she met Zhang Yunqing’s smiling eyes, she burst out laughing too.
The slightly polite and restrained atmosphere between them instantly disappeared.
“Since you’ve put it that way, then I won’t stand on ceremony anymore.”
As she spoke, Liu Suqin pulled out a stack of newspapers.
“We need to spread newspapers over the bed first before laying down the mattress, otherwise the mattress will get damp.”
The newspapers were discarded scraps from the printing factory, perfect for lining walls and beds.
Although Liu Suqin didn’t seem to have much luggage, the two of them still spent quite a while organizing everything before the room finally looked neat and tidy.
Using the communal thermos from the dormitory, Liu Suqin poured Zhang Yunqing a mug of warm water.
The two sat together chatting casually.
“Yunqing, you’ve seen the dormitory conditions now. They’re definitely not as good as home. But if you only use it for lunch breaks, it’s manageable.”
“Mm, I’ll think about it some more.” Zhang Yunqing nodded without giving a definite answer.
But the moment she stepped into the room, she had already abandoned the idea of living in the dormitory.
The space was simply too cramped.
In her previous life, while studying in poor county conditions, she had even lived in massive dormitories housing dozens of people.
And precisely because she had experienced that, she knew how many unnecessary conflicts could arise in such suffocatingly tight spaces where even turning around was difficult.
Rather than moving into a place like this, she’d rather stay home and continue making life difficult for Zhang Hongwei.
“What about you?” Zhang Yunqing asked. “Living here long-term isn’t very convenient either, right?”
“There’s no other choice.” Liu Suqin gave a bitter smile.
Of course she knew this place was uncomfortable to live in, but at the moment she had no better option.
“My aunt has already asked a matchmaker to help introduce me to someone who owns a house. Once I get married, I’ll have somewhere to live.”
At the mention of marriage, Zhang Yunqing fell silent.
No matter the era, women always seemed to lack a place that truly belonged to them.
Before marriage, they lived in their brothers’ homes.
After marriage, they lived in their husbands’ homes.
Liu Suqin’s thinking was exactly the same as most women of this era.
They all hoped marriage would finally provide them with a place of their own.
Bound by the limitations of the times, Zhang Yunqing couldn’t really say she was wrong.
“All the same,” she said, “you should choose carefully. Don’t just marry someone carelessly.”
The kind of lightning-speed process where the first meeting was a blind date, the second meeting discussed marriage, and the third meeting led straight to the wedding—
That was practically gambling the rest of one’s life on luck.
Zhang Yunqing didn’t want Liu Suqin to rush into things like that too.
Blushing, Liu Suqin nodded.
“Mm. My aunt’s helping keep an eye out for me.”
The two of them hadn’t known each other very long after all. There was only so much one could say before crossing boundaries.
Since Zhang Yunqing had already given her advice, she couldn’t really press further.
So she simply smiled and nodded.
“What about you?” Liu Suqin changed the topic. “Do you have someone you like?”
“Nope. Why don’t you introduce someone to me?” Zhang Yunqing teased.
“You’re so pretty—you could get whatever kind of man you wanted.”
Liu Suqin sounded genuinely envious.
Her own appearance was ordinary. If she could only choose between looks and stable employment in a future husband, she would definitely choose employment.
When women married, they married for food and clothing. Good looks couldn’t fill an empty stomach.
But Zhang Yunqing was different.
At five foot five, with strikingly handsome beauty and a stable job, as long as her family wasn’t too burdensome, finding a decent husband would be no difficult matter at all.
“As for the kind I want…” Zhang Yunqing deliberately dragged out the ending of her sentence.
“The one I want probably really doesn’t exist.”